Blender: Ultimate Wine Aerator

Volume 4 of Modernist Cuisine has a great chapter on wine and makes the rather surprising recommendation of hyperdecanting wine using a blender - yes, a blender! I'm not a huge wine buff and although I drink wine regularly, I never usually take the time to aerate or decant my wine. I'm already limited on kitchen storage so I didn't want to buy a huge glass pitcher or another gadget like the Vinturi to take up even more space. It turns out I don't need any of that stuff, as the best wine decanter has been sitting in my kitchen all along.

According to Modernist Cuisine, the two main benefits of decanting are oxygenation and outgassing. Oxygenation is when air dissolves in the wine, while outgassing is when dissolved gases and compounds like sulfur vent into the air. Both of these phenomena improve the flavor of the wine.

Yesterday I tried this technique of hyperdecanting wine using my Vitamix, and I have to say I was really impressed. We opened up a rather young (2010) Spanish red wine made from Garnacha grapes by the Tres Picos vineyard, tasted some, and then poured some into our Vitamix to hypercant. After giving it a whirl for 30-60 seconds, we tasted some of the hyperdecanted wine, and there was a noticeable difference. The hyperdecanted wine was much more mellow and incredibly smooth. This is definitely a trick I'm going to use from now on when drinking red wine.

There is a myth that white wine does not need to be aerated. This is simply not true. Although some of the most knowledgeable wine enthusiasts have thought the same thing, aeration does improve the bouquet, taste, and texture of white wine. With this in mind, Vinturi offers an aerator for white, as well. While it operates on the same principle, it has different internal dimensions because the white requires a different mixture with air to taste the way the winemaker intended.

Over-oxygenation can potentially oxidize wine into vinegar more quickly than desired. Also, you cannot off-gas sulfur. If you are referring to sulfur dioxide, they are typically found in lower quality wine in the form of sulfites to serve as antioxidants. Oxygenation may partially oxidize some of this into sulfates and knock out some of the foul tastes of the sulfites. However, sulfites are totally soluble and cannot be release by simple off-gassing unless the wine is sufficiently acidic.

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About Me

I'm a passionate foodie living in Boston who loves to eat. My wife and I dine out regularly but also love to cook. We respect tradition but also experiment with molecular gastronomy and modernist cuisine. If you'd like to contact me, my email address is kenny.modernistfoodie@gmail.com.

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